I Was Too Late
by sctwilightvampwolfgal
Summary: It hurt to see his best friend like this, broken over what he could have had.


His arms were a gentle embrace, and he didn't ever seem to mind the tears and snot.

"I-It's just that I just realized who she was, and she's already moved on." His mouth was running without stopping, but Nino was never the one to judge him for anything that he said.

"It will be fine, dude." It sent splinters across his heart too to be this close to Adrien, realize who Ladybug was, and know that his best friend, Cat Noir, had been broken by 'his' lady walking out on him.

Of course, Nino had managed to deduce a while ago that his best friend was doubling as Cat Noir, just he hadn't found a way to tell him, and now he was cradling him close, nursing his broken heart.

Marinette had been going out with Nathanael for three weeks now, and it looked like they were happy together; last year, she'd decided to try getting over her crush on Adrien which didn't help when he'd actually starting noticing her like this a few days ago.

"We'd tried as Cat Noir and Ladybug. We'd done our best to keep our identities secret from each other and balance a superhero relationship, but it fell apart about a week and a half ago when she'd admitted as a civilian, she thought that it was better to move on to something that held no lies, and that she'd already went on a couple dates with someone, and she was going to focus on that instead." His loud sob absolutely tore Nino's heart apart as he held him tighter, closer.

"I'm sorry, dude." Seeing Adrien this broken over what he could have had, hurt way more than a ton of bricks tossed over his chest.

"It's just, I could have tried to get to know her civilian self before knowing who she truly was, I could have moved on to her, and only fell more in love with her each day yet I was stupid and only tried to be with her superhero self, all these years, I'd never tried to move on." Adrien sounded absolutely crushed over this.

"It probably wouldn't have happened in time. Just last year, she decided that her crush on you was going nowhere." Nino sounded just as heartbroken; he just wanted his best friend to be happy.

"Would she have changed her mind if she knew that she'd actually been kissing me? I just wish I'd gotten a chance to kiss her without the suit, to know what it's like to try to be with my princess." Adrien still sounded so heartbroken.

"You didn't tell her who you are?" Nino couldn't help asking.

"She wanted us to keep our superhero identities a secret, and I only found out about hers by accident." He hadn't known that she'd drop into that alley to detransform; he'd often dropped into that particular one before.

It just hurt to hear her giggle over Nathanael's jokes and hurt to see his arm around her waist, and if he was unlucky enough to be in front of them when they kissed, it sent a stabbing pain through his heart.

It was obvious to everyone that Nathanael and Marinette were falling in love, and that their relationship was an obvious success, but it hurt more than he'd ever have cared to admit to anyone but his best friend.

"So," Nino took a deep breath, already hating his next question, "Would you have still noticed Marinette without realizing who she was?" It sounded awkward, but it probably needed to be said.

"I'd hope so. She stopped stuttering last year around me, and I've spent more time with her. I actually really like hanging out with her. I probably would have only noticed her once Ladybug and I split up, but I would have noticed her eventually." Adrien had no idea how he hadn't noticed that Marinette was absolutely adorable before or how she just seemed to light up any place with her presence.

He could barely hang out with her anymore since she was dating Nathanael and decided to hang out with her guy friends more in groups to just make sure that the wrong idea wasn't near anyone's head in the slightest.

Adrien missed just hanging out at her bakery, missed the sweets that he wasn't supposed to eat that her parents and her had worked so hard on, missed playing games with her and laughing.

Her laugh was a gorgeous sound, had always been, though he'd just started noticing it recently; it pierced his chest with what could easily be piercing blows whenever she laughed over something Nathanael had said.

Adrien wondered why he was so unlucky to fall for her now when she clearly had moved on from him.

Why couldn't he have noticed two years ago how amazing she was? His heart ached, and he snuggled further into the comforting embrace of his best friend and wondered for the millionth time if someone had somehow taken a sledgehammer to his heart, his chest, because that was what it felt like.

Adrien continued to sob as his thoughts ran further away from him, further out of his control.

He hated the way it broke and splintered his heart into millions upon millions of pieces.


End file.
